Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved) by Kate Bowler

I read this book in one weekend, and when I finished, I told everyone I met about how it was the best book ever. At least one friend listened, bought it, read it, and agreed.

Kate Bowler, a 35-year-old professor who studies the prosperity gospel, is diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer just after the birth of her son. She has believed that she can control the course of her life, and all of a sudden discovers that she can’t – this is her story of that time in her life. The writing is top-notch (I mean the book is really, really well written), honest, and darkly funny.

The publisher writes: Kate is very sick, and no amount of positive thinking will shrink her tumors. What does it mean to die, she wonders, in a society that insists everything happens for a reason? Kate is stripped of this certainty only to discover that without it, life is hard but beautiful in a way it never has been before.

“‘Oh, my friend, that sounds so hard.’ Perhaps the weirdest thing about having something awful happen is the fact that no one wants to hear about it. People tend to want to hear the summary but they don’t usually want to hear it from you. And that it was awful. So simmer down and let them talk for a bit. Be willing to stare down the ugliness and sadness. Life is absurdly hard, and pretending it isn’t is exhausting.”